Autopsy GWS d NMFC 121 - 82.

[muttley45]

First off, Goaters injury was the biggest bummer of the day, we now have a chance for Riley, Bergman, Archer etc to stake a claim.

Xerri bog easily, big plus.

McKercher and Duursma both showed a bit.

I'd like to see Sellers in to help Larkey out a bit in F50, CCJ ain't it.

When is Comben going to be ready for a game ?

Last, but not least, my $50 turned into $90 thanks to 48.5 pt's start

 

[Lomas]

Agree with most of the earlier posts. I hope that Coor only played because there were not any other options, which is likely, because he was not showing the leadership we need with an inexperienced defence.
Gutted for Goater.
Our experienced ‘acquisitions’ in Stephens, Fischer played at a lesser level than expected, maybe it was just a blip.
Our more established mature ‘acquisitions’ also played below expected. CCJ may be better replaced in the ruck by Greenwood of all people. Which is a shame as he actually started well.
Xerri hopefully takes some confidence, loved to see him take some marks.
I liked Sleevo’s intent and pressure.

 

[giantroo]

 

[Epictetus]

Some of it looked good, but we probably should have lost by 60.

I don't know what to make of it, really.

 

[Liam Boy]

question - can anyone make a votes thread?

 

[giantroo]

 

[DuckYeah]

Bog: Xerri. Easily the best player on the ground.

I am blown away by his sheer presence in the middle. Good set shot kick at goal. He’s ******* hungry.

I said before the game on what needed to be done to win. Accuracy on goal, defensive pressure (non existent) and organisation in the backline (free for all).

Wouldn’t be going too hard on the defensive unit after that.

Gee they move the ball with speed. They all just run in one direction with confidence the ball is coming out. The half forwards and the mids didn’t work hard enough defensively (not all but most).

We wont be coming up against that run too often. Orange team arguably the best in the comp right now.

If we bring that endeavour next weekend and a little better for the run. We can knock off Fremantle.

Outs: Shiels, CCJ, Goater
In: Simpkin, Bergman/luke, Greenwood
Sub: Lazarro

Expect better from: LDU, Stephens, Powell and Fish

 

[Bertie22]

Eugene Arocca...what a man!!!

 

[SSSSSS]

Sucks to hear about Goater. Not sure if it's any consolation but Wingard who ruptured his achilles in round 22 last year is already up and running. Has started to do some skills training a few weeks back. All going well we might see him fighting for selection before the bye.

Hopefully Goater being a lot younger will be able to get up and running to at least have a completed pre-season for 2025.

 

[Horizons_00]

Did Colby keep Greene goalless?

 

[Roostorm]

Eugene Arocca...what a man!!!

Nailed it quiet will in not so many words….the great man

 

[William Caresser]

Positives:

• McKercher - classy, agile and quick
• Duursma - super talented, makes it look easy
• Xerri
• Dawson
• LDU

Negatives:

• Goater injury
• Way too easy for the opposition to rebound from D-50 the length of the field very quickly - we looked like witches hats
• absolutely smashed in contested possessions
• the midfield lacks class despite the names - the sooner McKercher goes in there the better
• a lot of fumbling and poor disposal particularly from players who've come from other clubs
• inability of the forwards to bring the ball to ground (you should be able to kick the ball long occasionally and get a contest)
• scoreboard was flattering

 

[DuckYeah]

Did Colby keep Greene goalless?

Goater was on Green for first half and hal the third. Kerch on him after

 

[Spud11]

While the margin doesn’t look devastating, we need to remember that GWS (and Collingwood before them) were widely tipped as bottom 4 material before flipping the narrative and becoming the ones to beat.

Our language as a club is still tinged with a lot of things like “hopefully” and “maybe” being said. We’re not bold in our expectation and we’re not ruthless. It’s like we’re timid and we’ll take success only if everyone else allows it.

I’m also bothered by our supposed team of experts who still think things like Shiel as sub are good ideas. I give them time but I will be frustrated when obviously poor decisions such as this continue to be made.

 

[SonofSamsquanch]

Out:Lazaro, well unfortunately Goater,Corr Curtis..
Ins :Harvey Comben Bigi George.

That could work.

Even though they kicked a few behinds late in the game that could just have easily been goals, I'm not feeling as bad about this loss as I had over the past few seasons as there is clearly some method to the way the team played, despite some glaring errors that resulted in the giants opening North up disastrously. Yes, any loss can be disappointing but we are seeing improvement.

If the team can reduce the errors, and if there are a couple of stronger options selected then a win next week isn't a pipe-dream. I admit, it isn't in the bag though.

It looked like a few players didn't switch on but most likely, the ball movement by the giants was fast and often effective. They know each other's game well enough and they exploited the inexperience of North as they ought to have. So long as there are lessons learned today, this loss will help the younger and newer North blokes to improve. And that's fine by me for today.

I hope the young bloke, Goater is able to recover. Like the rest of the North crew I felt awful seeing him go down that way. It felt like a kick in the guts. I'd looked forward to him being a long term North Melbourne player and I hope he makes it back to become just that. On a few occasions I couldn't help seeing the Junk Yard Dog himself as Josh was running that ball out of defence.

 

[amaz199]

To put things into context, we lost by 39 to one of the most average *Essendon lists of all time in Rd 1, 2014. That was 10 years ago when we really should've been better prepared as a much older and experienced team.

Today, it was against a team completely driven to get a flag and looking for a top 2 finish. We are the youngest team in the comp.

We're going okay.

 

[Prancer]

Bend me over & do me up the ***

Long season ahead!

Go roos!

 

[DuckYeah]

While the margin doesn’t look devastating, we need to remember that GWS (and Collingwood before them) were widely tipped as bottom 4 material before flipping the narrative and becoming the ones to beat.

Our language as a club is still tinged with a lot of things like “hopefully” and “maybe” being said. We’re not bold in our expectation and we’re not ruthless. It’s like we’re timid and we’ll take success only if everyone else allows it.

I’m also bothered by our supposed team of experts who still think things like Shiel as sub are good ideas. I give them time but I will be frustrated when obviously poor decisions such as this continue to be made.

Shiels is done. I don’t think he should be playing

 

[Horizons_00]

Sucks to hear about Goater. Not sure if it's any consolation but Wingard who ruptured his achilles in round 22 last year is already up and running. Has started to do some skills training a few weeks back. All going well we might see him fighting for selection before the bye.

Hopefully Goater being a lot younger will be able to get up and running to at least have a completed pre-season for 2025.

Players aren't really the same after

I think in 2024 we have record Achilles injuries?

 

[gustaaf]

Our winning run had to come to an end at some point and after 6 months and 3 weeks we've finally tasted defeat again.

A mixture of positives and negatives. At times it looked like men against boys with GWS almost doing as they pleased when moving the ball into attack. They were very dominant in the air and looked very controlled in possession of the ball. GWS was actually better than I had expected them to be, which made the final 39 points margin almost acceptable, but it could also have been a much bigger margin.

On the positive side, North never gave up and when we fought back to within 5 points late in the 2nd quarter I couldn't believe my eyes, even if the score didn't reflect the balance of the game at that time. GWS will badly expose plenty of clubs this year.

Both McKercher and Duursma did well on debut. LDU grew into the game and played a strong 2nd half. Both Scott and Powell were busy and got a fair bit of the ball. The Warlord worked his arse off and put pressure on anyone who got near him with the ball, but has work to do on his disposals. That criticism also applies to Fisher. Zurhaar also did well when he moved into the midfield. Sheez racked up possessions as he usually does and Xerri was one of our best and showed he can develop into a more than serviceable ruck. I thought Dawson was probably the best of our tall defenders, but Pink was unfortunately quite badly exposed by all of his opponents. Larkey was well beaten by a super impressive Taylor, but to his credit still managed to kick three goals.

Clarko and his staff will have learned plenty from this game and will no doubt work on finding improvements. Unfortunately he'll have to find a replacement for Goater. I was hoping we would come out of R1 with a clean bill of health, but like quite a few other clubs we have already been struck with a bad injury at the start of the season.

Freo will be a level below GWS, so hopefully we can get a result. I think Pink and Lazzaro are the players most under pressure to keep their spots for that game.

 

[giantroo]

 

[Spud11]

Shiels is done. I don’t think he should be playing

Meanwhile… Did Greenwood play?

 

[Passmore]

Probably the hardest test we'll face all year and came out OK. Plenty to fix, but plenty to work with.

Goats injury a bummer, footy can be cruel. Look forward to getting him back next season.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[DuckYeah]

Meanwhile… Did Greenwood play?

Nah i think greenwood should maybe come in for ccj but im not a huge greenwood supporter either

 

[glenn2479]

It was actually a watchable game as a Nth supporter. That’s a nice change. We still lack a zippy crumbing forward, obviously the back line will be an issue all year but our run and carry was as good as I’ve seen for years. Considering our midfield was relatively quiet I thought both ends of the ground held up well. Lazz is ultra fumbly, can’t be an AFL player and Tommy Powell is an almost player.